Comec | “Breaking the mold” to overcome market challenges

In 1990 in Pavia, Marziano Costa, Comec’s founder and president, embarked on overcoming a challenge. Alongside his partners, his son Simone and Massimo Anselmi, he acquired a small metalworking shop that, over the years, has become an industry leader in stainless steel processing. With just-in-time service catering to a variety of industries – including electronics, electromechanics, the electro-medical sector, and above all the automotive and food industries – Comec stands out because of its innovative approach, strongly focused on technological improvement and manufacturing products of the highest aesthetic quality to meet the requirements of the most demanding and niche markets. 

“Comec was a very different company from how I imagined sheet metal working,” explains Marziano Costa. “It produced rougher finishes, using an approach that was far from what I had in mind, actually. Since I had already been successful working on my own from 1975 to 1990 in sectors that required high-quality finishes, I decided to try again because I felt it was a challenge I could take on and develop. And so it proved to be. After just a few years, we moved to Castelletto di Branduzzo, in the province of Pavia, where we owned warehouses, and went from 1,500 square meters in space to a much larger area of almost 7,000. Then we met Prima Power, which was a turning point.”  

An ideal partner for growth  

Meeting Prima Power and purchasing its first laser cutting machine in 1994 marked the turning point. Comec moved from a type of manufacturing centered on traditional machines to innovative solutions that, little by little, allowed it to achieve results that came closer to customers’ expectations, especially those in the electronics sector who required particularly precise finishes.  

“That was the real beginning and turning point,” Costa points out, “because from then on, we have tried to keep up with technology as much as possible to meet the needs of our customers, who are constantly facing daily challenges and driven by a continuous need for the best results. We work mainly with stainless steel and receive tougher requests every day, in terms of precision, but especially aesthetics. We have been able to achieve optimal results thanks to customized products and processes, such as steel painting and polishing—carried out by experienced polishers—as well as machine customization. Most importantly, our results are thanks to the people who work every day to meet these demands.” After the first laser cutter in 1994, Comec added a second a few months later, to ensure ever higher-quality product finishes: in this continuous search for innovative solutions, it found an ideal partner in Prima Power. “The most recent laser cutting machine is a 6 kW Platino Linear 1530. The machine delivers cutting accuracy to hundredth-of-a-millimeter tolerances, which are increasingly in demand. It also features a very interesting solution for protecting the cut sheets, an interleaf deposition system, which prevents surface marks that could compromise the aesthetics of the products. This solution was optimized by Prima Power on the warehouse peripherals of a second previously installed laser cutting machine, a Platino Fiber, which has performed very well. It’s a solution designed together with the Prima Power team and the result of a thirty-year partnership with people who really care about our company.” 

The need for an updated fleet  

Having an up-to-date fleet is a necessity for Comec. The company, now with its tenth installed Prima Power laser cutting machine, is constantly investing in new technologies and cutting-edge solutions to offer customers the highest standards of precision and reliability demanded by the market. “I think what makes the difference is our commitment to continuous innovation,” Costa emphasizes. “As Prima Power develops new solutions, we are ready to integrate them and make them our own, customizing them to offer a product of increasing quality. In this, the Prima Power team is by our side, understanding our needs and giving us a helping hand to achieve our goals.”  

Prima Power solutions in Comec’s fleet include a Platino Fiber laser and a Platino Linear laser, both with Combo Tower, a Combi Sharp with Compact Express, a BCe Smart+ bending center, and two press brakes, the eP-1030 and eP-0520. The Platino Linear, a more advanced version of the Platino Fiber, is a fiber laser with a robust and durable design that provides high cutting productivity and quality as well as great reliability and precision, especially when processing thin materials, such as those used by Comec. It is a modular solution that can be integrated with a wide range of automation modules for loading, unloading, picking, sorting, and stacking sheets and parts. Comec has combined it with a Combo Tower Laser, or a flexible storage system with loading and unloading functions and shelving structure, which automates the flow of material and serves as intermediate storage for components that have already been cut.  The Combi Sharp, on the other hand, is a punching and fiber laser cutting cell, served by an automated material handling device of the Compact Express type, a combination machine that Comec has used to replace one of its punching machines. After punching, it allows the laser to finish the parts directly while also performing in-machine forming, threading, and even marking. The two eP-1030 and eP-0520 press brakes, with servo-electric technology, are flexible, fast, and accurate machines with high repeatability and process stability, which have enabled Comec to meet customer demands by increasing productivity without sacrificing precision.  

A journey of growth and technological innovation  

The arrival of the BCe Smart+ panel bender also brought a new opportunity and yet another breakthrough for Comec. “This was a new experience for us that quickly proved to be a success because it allowed us to achieve precision in parts that were previously bent manually,” the Comec president explains. “We have increased production and pleased customers by maintaining a share of the market. Additionally, we reached our goal of providing the technical department with a tool to design a part or a series of parts that could be processed on that machine. This helps our clients stand out when presenting their proposals to the end customer.” For Comec, the introduction of Prima Power’s BCe Smart+, a machine quite different from the press brakes used before, represented another step forward in its journey of technological innovation increasingly centered on process reliability and repeatability. With excellent bending quality, thanks to the angle correction database and servo-electric technology, the panel bender is the ideal solution for increasing flexibility and productivity with the right balance, allowing even less experienced operators to handle processing easily. “It is an extremely easy-to-use and reliable machine that delivers a finished part and does not necessarily require an experienced operator. The operator loads the sheet metal to be bent onto the brush tables and walks away with the bent component, all in one step.” In the panel bender, the operator benefits from the absence of physical barriers and the lowerable worktables, which make loading small or medium-sized parts easier. Two laser scanner systems monitor the loading and unloading areas, ensuring all operations are carried out safely. The compact layout and combined loading and unloading sequence ensure high productivity—an important investment for anyone seeking a flexible, semi-automatic panel bender. 

Perfect synergy for cutting-edge, customized solutions    

Over the years, the relationship between Comec and Prima Power has led to the emergence of customized solutions catering to specific needs that have proven useful for other customers as well. “Ours start out as requests and become recommendations for development, as in the case of the interleaving system,” Costa says. “We look at what we need together and make it happen through continuous communication and collaboration that has lasted more than thirty years.” The interleaving system is an important innovation that came about with the storage units installed at Comec. Making an “aesthetic” product, thus a very delicate one, the company needed a solution that would protect it from scratches and damage during storage, since the double layer of film was not enough. It therefore became necessary to insert a ‘soft’ plastic sheet, of the same size as the cut parts, between each stainless steel sheet. This acts as a cushion and allows the material to be stacked safely. This was made possible thanks to the support and ingenuity of Prima Power, which, with this custom-built interleaving system, allowed Comec to manage a very high-quality product while strengthening its market position. Prima Power addressed this need by upgrading the process software. By using a loading level in the storage unit to place the interleaf, Comec can cut and handle an aesthetically perfect product. The application was so effective that it was immediately decided to replicate it in the latest installation as well. The insertion of the interleaf, along with a whole series of machine customizations that have been carefully developed over the years, represent the perfect example of how a solution born from the synergy between Comec and Prima Power has brought enormous benefits not only to Comec, but also to other customers who needed features of the same type to excel in their markets.  

Continuous improvement for a successful future 

Comec's approach, based on the concepts of customization and technological innovation, and its relationship with Prima Power, which has always been at its side, have enabled the company to “break the mold” and achieve extremely high levels of precision. “With Prima Power, a historic relationship was born when laser technology was in its infancy. Ours is a journey of continuous growth and improvement that began many years ago and is destined to last for a long time to come.” Comec's success is the result of a business philosophy built around cutting-edge solutions and partners of excellence, such as Prima Power. A way of seeing the company as an evolving ecosystem that does not push machines to their limits but changes them as technology advances, achieving the highest quality where others cannot and offering it to its customers. “We would like to continue on this journey that offers us excellent results into the future because the key to our success is striving for perfection. In addition, with the latest installed machines, we have been able to cater to a wider range of customers and meet the needs of those customers who were looking for lower costs for certain products. Now we are ready to meet all demands brought to us, and this has only been possible by adopting the best, in terms of technology, and breaking the mold.” Comec’s ideas are as brilliant as its stainless-steel components, which stand out for their curated finishes and unique, excellent aesthetic quality.

This article has been republished with the approval of Deformazione.

Originally published on Deformazione.

Images: courtesy of Deformazione